The present disclosure relates generally to information handling systems, and more particularly to the transfer of an address book over a network between printers.
As the value and use of information continues to increase, individuals and businesses seek additional ways to process and store information. One option is an information handling system (IHS). An IHS generally processes, compiles, stores, and/or communicates information or data for business, personal, or other purposes. Because technology and information handling needs and requirements may vary between different applications, IHSs may also vary regarding what information is handled, how the information is handled, how much information is processed, stored, or communicated, and how quickly and efficiently the information may be processed, stored, or communicated. The variations in IHSs allow for IHSs to be general or configured for a specific user or specific use such as financial transaction processing, airline reservations, enterprise data storage, or global communications. In addition, IHSs may include a variety of hardware and software components that may be configured to process, store, and communicate information and may include one or more computer systems, data storage systems, and networking systems.
IHSs may include printers that allow users to print, scan, email, and/or fax documents, photos, and a variety of other materials. For example, a printer may be coupled to one or more IHSs over a network in order to allow the printer to print and/or scan, email and fax to IHSs over the network. The printer will typically include an address book, and that address book may include a plurality of contacts that each include information such as a name, an email address, a fax number, etc. For example, the plurality of contacts may include information for each of the users that use the printer, a plurality of contacts to whom the printer is used to scan, email, or fax documents, and/or a variety of other contacts details known in the art. When the user wishes to replace a printer, it is desirable for the user to transfer the address book from the printer being replaced to the new printer. The transferring of an address book between printers raises a number of issues.
Conventional printers tend to define their address book content fields according to their functional requirements, and different printer suppliers or vendors often define their address book content fields differently as there is no standard format across printers from different suppliers or vendors or even across different generation printers that are from the same supplier or vendor. Thus, it is difficult to quickly and easily transfer address books from one printer to another. For example, the user may be forced to manually enter each piece of contact information that is included in the address book of an existing printer into the address book of a new printer, which is error-prone and time consuming. In order to remedy this, IHS applications have been provided that, once the user transfers a first printer address book from a first printer to an IHS, convert the first printer address book to a format compatible with a second printer and save it on the IHS. The user may then connect the IHS to the second printer and import the converted printer address book to the second printer. Such IHS applications require the use of an IHS and multiple steps by the user in order to transfer the printer address book between printers.
Accordingly, it would be desirable to provide an improved system and method for transferring an address book between printers.